Another Day
by amacma
Summary: Set 3 months after Day 8. Jack is still an outlaw seeking for revenge, with Chloe's help. But they both don't know that they are being used by the government - until Chloe finds it out and tries to make a deal with the president, to rehabilitate Jack, in exchange for critical evidence. Rated T for occasional violence. Disclaimer: I do not own 24 and it's characters... damn it!
1. Revenge, pt 1

Revenge, pt. 1 Friday 09:00 a.m. LT, New York

As Jack woke up this morning, he felt nauseous. Maybe it was an effect of drinking that much the evening before, or mixing it with that amount of sleeping pills to keep the nightmares away.

He stumbled out of bed and over to the small bathroom in his apartment. Avoiding to look at himself in the mirror he stepped into the shower and let the water run over his body. Since what had happened last evening he was keeping to ask himself the question - how in the world could he have ever ended up here?

It seemed to him, that all he had become was a serial killer. Working for CTU, who didn't even know about his involvement. He was doing the dirty work- which they seemed to be afraid to do.

Since his getaway three months ago he had kept contact with Chloe. She had saved his life back there when she had kept him from making the worst mistake to kill Suvarov. Later on, in return, she had helped him, as she had gotten new intel on some of the people, who were behind the murder of Renee.

Two days ago she had called him, telling him of a small cell of the Russian mob which was acting right here in N.Y.

She had given him an address, based on some new evidence she had gotten from one of their secret sources. This cell had worked with Red Square before, and they had supplied Renee's assassinator on that day.

Jack ran his hand through his hair and let the water run over his face. It felt like the blood from yesterday evening wouldn't get washed away so easy.

But then again, it felt good to get the blood of these men on his hands.

Some days he had hated himself for what he was doing right now. The small moments when he saw his bullets kill these men, which were somehow involved into her death, or when he felt somebody's warm blood gush over his hand when he dug his knife into their body gave him at least some kind of a feeling.

It was only a short moment, in which he felt powerful again. He was afraid that he was slowly getting addicted to these small highs, which gave him gratification for what they had done to her. He only lived to get justice for this day.

Right as he stepped out of the shower he heard his cell phone ringing. He ran. Chloe was the only one who had this number. She was the only person left in his life at all. Unfortunately, her time as acting director of CTU had been a short one. Right after President Taylor had resigned, the Vice President had sent somebody from Homeland Security to take CTU over as acting director. Chloe was only second in command any more.

"Yes", he shortly answered. They had agreed on not saying names at all.

"You did good yesterday. It seems like we've hit them where we wanted to."

Her words almost gave him a little, cold, smile. "That's what we wanted, isn't it.", he answered briefly.

"Uhm… yes.", Chloe answered, a little bit hesitating. She saw the photographs in her debriefing folder. The men on this picture hadn't been neutralized- they had been tortured and executed.

"Did you get anything useful out of them?", she asked him.

Jack could relate why she was asking. "Yeah. There are a few suppliers to them, back in the chain to Russia. They said they're operating out of Chicago." He made a pause. "They gave me a name. I'm gonna go there."

Chloe held her breath for a moment. She couldn't let that happen today. "Jack, I need you in New York. Right Now.", she told him, "we've got some intel about some of them also acting in N.Y."

"Were they also involved three months ago?", he silently asked.

"I don't know for sure, Jack. They don't seem to be Red Square. More like business rivals of them."

"That's none of my business.", Jack replied.

"Oh yes, it is, Jack.", Chloe hissed. "We've got an agreement, you and I. "

He closed his eyes for a short moment and ran his hand through his wet hair. He didn't like to be addressed like that. "I'm not your killer whenever you need somebody to do your dirty work which you won't get authorized."

"Unfortunately, you are, Jack.", Chloe replied. "I'm sorry but I don't have any other choice. The president knows about you, and so do several others. They've got us all under their control. Please, Jack. You know what's on the stake."

He turned silent for a few moments. "What do you need, Chloe."

"I'm going to send you an address to your cell phone. Call me when you get there, you'll get real time satellite updates. I need you to find a man named Dan Walters. Get him out of there."

"Why me? You can send you own men for a simple rescue action."

"No, we can't. He's undercover with the Red Square and we can't allow to blow his cover."

"How do you want to do that? Get me some details."

Chloe pulled up the file of Dan Walters on her computer. "His real name is Dan Meyer. He's with FBI, but we're also using his details on finding the real source of the atomic device they tried to detonate a few months ago. We need him in there, Jack. This is our only lead we still have. You're the only one who is within his range. We need to do this fast."

"Okay.", he answered. "How do want it to look like?"

"Go in unseen. Take out their man, free Meyer. Tell him you've been ordered by CTU, don't tell them who you are. Make it look like he's got out on his own, it is vital that there is no evidence of our involvement."

"Got that, Chloe. I'll call you.", he answered and ended the call. It was time to get ready. Right as he threw the phone back on the bed he heard the short tone, that the location pictures had just come in.

He took a deep breath and felt the adrenaline rushing through his body and wondered for one second, how long he would be able to do this, to act like this and to live the life he we was living right now. Chances were high that they would kill or capture him someday soon.


	2. Revenge, pt 2

Revenge, pt. 2 Friday, 09:30 am, New York

Jack took his phone and made the call to Chloe. He stayed, hidden in one of the gardens next to the house, which the address had led him to. Out of his hideout he was observing the building. Apart from one guy who was smoking in front of the house it seemed quiet.

"Chloe?", he whispered, as she picked up.

"Jack, are you on site?"

"Yeah. I see one of them outside in the street. How many are in there?"

She pulled up the satellite image. "I can't tell for sure. At least six of them. Three should deployed in the larger rooms on the first floor, the other ones should be on the third floor, where we think they keep Meyer. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. I'll call you as soon as I'm inside.", he answered and hung up.

They had no resources left for him. No COM unit, no backup and no further cover up from Chloe. If he failed, they could just blame it on his revenge. Jack knew the risks.

He checked on his two weapons again. He had a gun with a silencer ready, another shotgun and a .45 in his holster. In his bag was enough ammunition to start a small war, or, to be able to make a long getaway.

Slowly he crept out of his hideout. He stayed in the shade and snuck over to a phone booth to hide.

The man outside the building had a look around, but then he got another cigarette out of the pack.

Right as he tried to light it Jack took an aim and shot him right in head. The man dropped right to the ground.

Jack ran over to him, took his shoulders and dragged him away from the main entrance, behind a parked car.

For a moment he hid behind that car and then pulled the black mask over his face, before he silently entered the building through a side entrance.

The three men were standing close together, suddenly in his sight. He cradled down behind a few containers.

But they didn't see him. Without making a sound the door fell closed.

Jack looked and saw that he could get around them all. The way upstairs was right at the other side of the room.

As silently as possible he went down the corridor, to the stairs. They hadn't seen him, heading down there, and neither they saw him rushing up the stairs.

Right in that moment his phone vibrated. "Chloe.", he whispered.

"Keep your position, Jack. They are moving. Two of them have come down to the first floor. They coming right your direction. Go upstairs, take the first door on the left and hide until they are out of the house."

"Negative, Chloe. There is a dead body right outside. They're not allowed to leave the building."

She needed a second to come up with a new plan. "Ok, Jack. Go up the stairs, they will be in your field of vision in 8 seconds. You have to shoot on sight."

"Copy that, Chloe." He hung up again and got himself into position at the upstairs landing. Right as the two got in sight he fired a volley of shots, killing them. There were two muffled bangs as their bodies crashed down.

Jack jumped out of his cover and ran over to them, checking their vital signs. Both were dead.

He looked up the stairs to the third floor and got his cell phone again. "Chloe. They're down. I'm moving to the third floor. Is Meyer still where they kept him?"

"No changes. One man is in the same room. Third door on your right, upstairs."

"I'll call you.", he answered.

He checked once more on the magazine before he crept over to that door. Seven shots left. That should be enough for that one hostile. As far as he had seen on the satellite images, Meyer seemed to be sitting in the middle of the room. The guard could be anywhere.

Jack took a deep breath before he opened the door a little bit. He peeked into the room. No visual on the hostile, not even on Meyer. He simply had to swing the door open and see what would happen.

He pushed the door open and hid behind the doorframe.

Nothing happened.

Jack slid into the room and had a look around. That was just a little anteroom. Behind a little passage without a door there seemed to be a bigger room.

He went across the anteroom and had a short look. There was Meyer, sitting on a chair, in the middle of the room. He still didn't see the guard.

Slowly he crept towards the passage and put out a small mirror to have a look.

He kneeled down and held the mirror to see the room.

Now he saw the hostile, sitting on a chair right behind the wall where he was hiding, only a few feet away.

Jack put his gun down and took out a knife.

For a moment he hesitated, then he jumped around the corner, grabbed the man's head and slit his throat. He could even feel the warm blood gushing out of the arteries of this guy. He didn't pull the knife out too soon, pushed it even harder and grabbed the guys mouth any faster. After some endless seconds he let go and put the body down on the floor.

He went over to Meyer, who seemed to be unconscious. He had been beaten up and was looking horrible.

Jack took his shoulders and shook them. "Walters.", he hissed. No reaction. "Meyer. Wake up.", he hissed again. As he heard his real name he woke at once.

He coughed blood, as he woke up and startled, upon seeing an unknown man kneeling in front of him. "Who are you?"

"That's none of your concern. Let's just assume someone sent me to get you out of here."

"You know my name. I suppose you already blew my cover?"

"No.", Jack answered.

"Show me your face."

"No.", Jack answered again. "It's vital that it looks like you made the escape on your own. Are you able to walk and shoot?"

He nodded. "Give me a gun."

Jack handed him his spare gun. "Down on the first floor there are still three of them. We have to take them out."

"Alright. I'll follow you."

They both stood up again. Jack rushed out of the room. As he was at the stairs again he saw that Walters, or Meyer, however his name was, had trouble walking. "Are you up to this?", Jack asked.

"I'll be fine. Shoot on sight.", Dan answered.

Jack nodded and let him go first. Slowly they went downstairs.

Dan had a look at the two bodies that lay in the second floor. They were the ones who had pressed him before. Jack could see it in his view at them.

They crept downstairs once more. This time Jack made the lead. He gestured at Dan where the other hostiles would be- down on the other side of a long hallway. They went on.

Short before they would see them Dan raised his hand, showing Jack to stop.

"Wait.", he whispered. "Let me do this."

Jack nodded. "I can't let anything happen to you. I'll cover your back.", he murmured.

Dan nodded.

They went a few steps down the hallway – as suddenly one of the guards stepped around the corner. He startled and fumbled for his gun.

Jack and Dan started shooting right as they saw him, taking him down before he could even react. But the noise had been too loud. The other two were already running towards that corner.

"Retreat.", Jack yelled at Dan. "We won't have any cover here in the hallway!" He already was about to start running back to the stairwell as he saw that Dan was heading right the other way.

"Damnit.", he cursed, and ran after him, his gun drawn.

One of their men stood right behind that corner and held the muzzle of an automatic weapon right into the hallway, firing around aimlessly.

Jack let his body drop to the floor and took his shotgun. He had to make an aim at this guy's hands, and he did.

The man let the weapon fall down and was screaming awfully.

One to go.

Dan crept closer to the corner, Jack closed up on him.

The last one of them wasn't far away.

Dan shot aimlessly into the room, as he didn't see anything what was going on in there – until his magazine was empty. The other took the advantage and jumped round the corner, an aim on him.

Dan shove the other's hand with the weapon away, causing the hostile to let it fall. But the man didn't let go of him, they kept fighting, until Jack fired his gun in the air.

The hostile let go of Dan, dropping him to the ground.

Coughing he fought to stand up again, which seemed to be hard work for him.

Jack held the other man at gunpoint. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Think so.", Dan answered and took the other's gun from the ground. He checked on the magazine and then also pointed it at the man. "I'll take it from here.", he murmured into Jack's direction.

"Alright. Do whatever you want. I'll stay for backup.", Jack answered and let the two of them a bit of space to talk.

"Where is Damian?", Dan asked the man. "Tell me."

The other just sneered. "No way."

"I had a deal with Damian. It didn't consist of ending up here, getting questioned by you all. I wanted to buy something.", he continued. "Where do I find him?"

The other showed no reaction.

Dan lowered his weapon and shot the man's right knee. "Where is he?", he asked again.

Screaming in pain he went down. "Fuck you!", he just repeated all the time.

Dan took a deep breath and then aimed at the other leg. "Tell me."

"He told us to question you here… we should bring you to 107th thereafter, he's got an office there, right at the Brendan Street, close to the highway.", the guy coughed. "He was suspicious whether you are FBI or police or anything like that."

Dan knelt down. "Yo think like that?", he asked, took the man's head by his hair and forced him to look at him. "You made a mistake.", he answered, stood up again and went a few steps away. For a few moments he thought whether he should kill this guy now or not, but he decided not to. This was his chance to get his credibility back.

"Who is that guy?", the man on the ground coughed.

Dan looked at Jack, who had his weapon still drawn and aimed at the man on the ground.

Again Dan knelt down to the man. "Do you really think I would come here without backup? Tell Damian I'll call him. Terms have changed now a bit." He stood up, facing Jack. "Let's go."

Jack had a final look at the man who was writing in pain there. He would survive this, without question.

Still holding him at gunpoint he watched Dan's back, as he limped out of this building.

As they stepped out into the sunlight, Jack took his black hood off. "Get over there. I've got my car parked in the other alley."

Dan followed him. Jack tried to hide the shotgun as well as he could, underneath his jacket.

"Who are you?", Dan asked, again.

"Get in the car. I'll tell you on the way."

"You're FBI, aren't you?", Dan asked as he got into the car. "I know your face from somewhere."

"Can't be. I've never been working for the FBI.", Jack answered as he drove off. "Let's just say CTU sent me to get you out of this, but not to blow your cover. None of the official channels knows about this, this is going to stay between us."

"Alright.", Dan answered. "You can at least give me your name."

"Not important.", Jack answered.

They both sat silent for a few moments. "Where do you want to be put off?", Jack asked.

"My flat should be safe. It's six blocks form here. Turn right, then straight ahead."

Jack did as he was told.

Again Dan gazed at him. "I know your face. You've been undercover with Renee." This man was not as uninvolved into all this as he maybe liked to be. "I've heard rumors. You're Bauer, right?", he continued.

"What rumors.", Jack asked with a low voice.

"About you. No good ones."

"None of your concern.", Jack said again, this time harsher.

"Are you in it for revenge?", Dan asked. "That's what all these rumors are about. I didn't believe you were still on this. Wasn't that enough what you did the other day?"

Jack braked the car to a sudden stop. "One more word and throw you out, do you understand me?", he hissed.

But Dan looked straight into his eyes. "Don't handle me like this. I've known Renee. That's all I wanted to say."

Jacks eyes filled up with fury. "You knew her?"

Dan nodded. "I was undercover same time with her. I didn't know that she was one of us. Played her role really well."

"What do you want to tell me with all this.", Jack murmured.

Dan sighed. "Nothing. It's simply a tragedy that she's not around any more.", he murmured and lowered his view.

Jack took a deep breath. No. Don't speak about Renee, he ordered himself. Not to anyone, and especially not to a guy whom he had known for only a few minutes and who seemed to know Renee better than he did by himself.

He set the turn signal and got back on the road.

"Do you want to get deeper into this?", Dan asked.

"I think I better don't. Pretty much people want to see me dead.", Jack replied.

"You're right. If you change your mind, let me know."

"Alright."

Five minutes later. Jack stopped at a red traffic light, which was only a few yards away from Waltes' entrance door. It was convenient to be able to let him out of the car so unsuspiciously.

"Goodbye Jack, thanks.", Dan said as he quickly left the car. He wore one of Jacks coats to cover his ugly, bloody own clothes.

Jack drove off.

Right as he was around the next corner he took out his cell phone and called Chloe.

"Chloe, it's done. I let him out at his apartment. I'm on Wellington, corner 74th street."

"Where did you drop him off, then?", she asked.

"His apartment. At least he said that was it."

"No. His apartment is way across the city. Where did you leave him, Jack?"

"He told me to!", Jack roared. "What the hell is going on, Chloe?"

"Jack, something is not right. We're just getting some evidence that a major arms deal will probably happen in the city. Today, we still don't know where. It is vital that Walters keeps under cover and is invited to that deal."

"Do you know anything about a man named Damian? He's got an office near 107th and Brendan. Walters mentioned it before. And have a look into his file from the FBI. Find out who knew about his undercover mission. They suspected him to be FBI, so there's got to be somebody who talked."

"I'll see what I can find out, Jack. And please- keep an eye on Walters. Until I know how the Russians got suspicious of him I can trust nobody else."

"I'll do.", he murmured and hung up. Then he turned the car around and drove back. This was just about to become ugly.


	3. Changes

Changes Friday 10:12 am LT, New York

As Jack entered the building through the same door as Dan had done, at first he wasn't sure where to go. This was a five floor high building in the middle of New York, surrounded by some of the most crowded streets he knew.

He wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, kept his head low and went slowly up the stairs as he saw three black clothed men coming downstairs.

Hurriedly he opened the door at the next upstairs landing and slid out of the stairwell, into the second floor main hallway. The men hadn't seen him since they weren't awaiting him. They passed his position and went further downstairs.

Jack always kept peeking through the gap he had let the door open. As they passed by, he saw how one of them wiped his fingers clean – from blood.

Hurriedly Jack took out his cell phone.

„Hello", Chloe answered.

„It's me. Have you got a satellite image on the building we're in?"

„Wait a moment. Let me go to my desk."

„Hurry up, Chloe. I think it's already too late for Meyer. Three men are leaving the building right now. Can you see them?"

It took her a moment to bring up the satellite image. „Yeah. Who are they?"

„I don't know yet. They weren't the ones from the place where I picked up Dan before. They were ordered by someone else. I think they just got to him before I could."

„What's the status of Dan?"

He dared to get out into the stairwell to have a look where the men have gone. „I don't know for sure. I'm still looking for him, but I think it's too late. It seems they have been waiting for him, I would have had no chance to stop this."

Chloe swore into the receiver. „Damnit. He was our only lead."

„Have you found something on Walsh?"

„Wait a second." Chloe opened his file. „He's a known crime suspect, was released three years ago from prison. Out last information on him is… wait… he just boarded a flight to La Guardia. He's coming to New York."

Jack listened carefully while he went further upstairs, searching for the right place to find Dan Walters. „I already thought that. Listen, Chloe. You have to tell me what this all is about. I need to know all of it."

„What do you intend?", she asked, but she could almost guess what was on his mind.

Jack had found a bloody handprint on the door at the fifth floor. „Hold on Chloe, I found him.", he murmured.

Carefully he draw his weapon – with the silencer on it – out of his bag and opened the door. It lead to a large, technical storage room.

Jack let the door swing open.

There was nobody inside apart from Dan Meyer, lying in pool of blood.

Jack entered the room, his weapon drawn. He went around but there was nobody left. „Chloe, I found Walters." He knelt down and felt the mans pulse. „It's too late.", he murmured.

„Damnit.", Chloe murmured. „Get out of there and try not to leave any tracks."

Jack stood up again, quickly. He left the room, closed the door again without leaving any fingerprints and started to rush downstairs. „How did they find out about his cover?", he asked her. „There has to be someone on the inside."

„I'm working on it.", she replied. „Now tell me what you're up to with Walsh."

„I'm going to the airport.", he answered.

„And then?"

„Damnit Chloe, fill me in on the details. I need to know what's going on around here. I'll see what I can do when I get to Walsh. Maybe I can follow him to that meeting."

Chloe just wanted to reply, as she saw Lynn, her new assistant data analyst, waiting in front of her office door. „I have to hang up, I'll call you back.", she murmured into the private cell phone, before she gestured Lynn to come in.

"This is the file you wanted. I printed it once, there are no copies on our servers.", Lynn said.

"Thanks.", Chloe answered. "Anything else?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Lynn approached Chloes desk. "Mr. Wellington is starting to ask around, about what you're doing up here. You missed one of the briefings."

Chloe looked at her wristwatch. Damnit, she had really forgotten about it. Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. "Thanks. I'll be there next time.", Chloe answered.

Finally, Lynn left the room.

She took the paper file and started to read it through, when she stared.

Dan Meyer had gone undercover a long time ago, but the FBI never had access to his files, apart from his two contact persons – Larry Moss and Renee Walker.

Chloe already knew that he would not like to hear this, so she hid the file and rushed out of her office, to call him from some lonely place in the basement.


	4. Rearrangement

Rearrangement Friday, 10:40 am LT, New York

Jack was on the way to the airport, as his phone rang again. Hurriedly he answered it. "Hello."

"Walsh is going to land in 15 minutes. Can you make that?", Chloe asked.

Jack looked at his wristwatch and then again at the GPS. "Yeah, I think I'll be there in time. Send me a photo of him. Chloe, tell me the details now."

Chloe was now back in her office. She made sure that nobody would disturb them as she'd bring Jack up to speed on the status of their investigation.

"Listen Jack. Three weeks ago Walters aka Meyer found out about this meeting. Another one of our sources confirmed it."

"What type of source?", Jack asked.

"There's a member of one of their gangs. He got caught by the police once and works for us in return for exemption from punishment. That's all I know. Our new boss, Wellington, seems to be in contact with him."

"Can his information be trusted?"

"It was always consistent with the things Walters gave us. We have no reason not to believe him. He was the one who gave us the information about the other buyers."

"Which I eliminated for you during the last weeks.", he continued.

"Exactly. Walters was part of the organization of Sergey Bazhaew. He couldn't tell us what this meeting is about, but we expect it to be something big. A lot of people seem to be coming from many different places."

"I understand. We'll find out when we follow Walsh. I'll call you when I get there." He hung up and drove on.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Chloe hadn't been the only one hiding in the lonely basement hallways to make an untraced phone call.

Alexander Wellington was the new boss of CTU Division New York. He had been temporary instated- for a reason. He was the one who took out his other cell phone to call the president's office.

From the Chief of Staff he finally got patched through to President Taylor.

"Mr. Wellington?", she answered the call.

"Yes, Madam President. Thank you for your time."

"Do you have any good news for me?", she asked.

"Yes and no.", he answered. "We were able to take another potential buyer out yesterday evening.", he proudly gave away. "But we've recently lost contact to our man in the organization. He is not answering at the moment."

"Does CTU search for him?"

Wellington took a deep breath as he made a pause. "Yes and no.", he said. "Officially all of CTU is looking for our inside man, but… I've just got confirmation that he is no longer alive."

President Taylor understood what he meant with that wording. She sent all others except for her Chief of Staff out of the room. As they had left, she went on, "Mr. Wellington, I suppose you got that information from phone calls between Jack Bauer and Chloe O Brian?"

She knew it because she had herself authorized that measure. Very soon after they had started to investigate the deaths of the Russian diplomats who Jack had killed the other day they had found out that these men had neither been friends of their country nor had they been innocent.

Even after Jack had disappeared he had proven to be a very deadly weapon. She had hardly had any choice but to use him.

Wellington had been the head of the bureau of investigation. She had promoted him head of CTU New York from where he had access to Bauer. They had very soon found out that Chloe O Brian was the one to help him escape. They had kept in contact after that.

She had authorized that he would monitor all calls of O Brian.

Then he had systematically started to feed her with information. While CTU had been monitoring the activities of Walters undercover, he had found out very valuable information about a meeting which would take place soon, he had even found out about some others who would attend that meeting. It was most likely a large weapons deal.

Wellington had faked a few pieces of information to make it look like these other potential buyers were part of the organization that had killed Renee Walker. He had fed these pieces of information to Chloe O Brian and then they had waited.

Within days these persons had mysteriously disappeared or were found dead.

The connection between Jack Bauer and Chloe O Brian worked effectively.

"We couldn't intercept all phone calls between Mrs. O Brian and Jack Bauer.", he carried on, "But we suspect that Jack Bauer still goes after a lead he has."

"That's good, isn't it?", she hesitatingly asked. She feared that it might be not something good, since Wellington had already said it in a very strange way.

"Madam President, we have no idea what that lead is and where he got it from. But what we found out was that this meeting is going to take place today, in less than four hours. We're running out of time to find a lead the conventional way."

President Taylor sighed. "Are you saying you want to bring Jack Bauer officially into this investigation? Are you aware of the consequences?"

"Yes, I am, Madam President.", Wellington hurriedly answered. "And there is no need to bring Jack Bauer back officially. We have designed this operation with complete deniability. All we have to do is to bring Chloe O Brian down. She'll get us the access to Bauer."

She thought for a minute. Although she had herself designed that mission to throw Bauer under the bus if necessary – now she didn't like it any more. "Is there any other way?", she asked again.

"I'm afraid no, Madam President.", Wellington continued to tell his plan, "I would like to bring Chloe O Brian down for questioning. We have evidence that she was communicating with the crime suspect Jack Bauer. That's enough for the start. She'll tell us everything about the lead once we interrogate her."

President Taylor thought a minute and then gave him the permission to do it like that.

Wellington hid his other cell phone again and then quickly made his way back into his office.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack made his way through the arrival terminal of JFK airport. He was walking as fast as possible without attracting attention. All his weapons except once knife with a ceramic blade and a handgun he had left in the car.

Finally he reached the exit. He had a look at the arrivals board. Flight NE933 from Chicago had landed three minutes ago.

Unobtrusively he mingled with the waiting crowd and had a look at the photo which Chloe had sent him.

He waited for 10 whole minutes. That man didn't show up.

Hurriedly he called her.

"Yes?", she answered.

"You have to check that flight again. He's not arriving. Could he transfer to another flight?"

"Hold on a second."

In the background he heard her hammering at the computer keyboard.

"Yeah, you're right. He has online checked in for a flight from JFK to LAX. Leaving in the next forty minutes. Boarding has already started. Flight WE1441, Gate 19."

_Damnit,_ he swore. "Chloe, can you check me in for that flight, too?"

She sneered. "And how do you want to pass security chek?"

"Just do it. Send me an online boarding pass to my phone, they'll have mobile check in for sure.", he hissed and hung up.

Jack started to run again. He left the arrivals terminal and stood in line with the crowd which waited to pass security. Three rows behind him a group of tourists stood. He saw that one of them had put a newspaper and his boarding pass carelessly on top of his suitcase, which he wasn't even watching.

He passed the crowds and walking by he grabbed the newspaper and the boarding pass.

Jack took his gun out of his bag and hid it in the newspaper, then he threw both into a near dustbin. He would never pass security control in time with his gun on him.

He also took the ceramic knife and hid it underneath his trousers. That thing shouldn't trigger the alert at the metal detectors, but he nevertheless tensed as he finally stepped through the arch. Thank god it hadn't found the knife in his trouser pocket.

Once behind the security he started to run once again, towards Gate 19. Still running, Chloe called.

"I've checked you in. You'll be in 12D, aisle seat. He'll be right in front of you, but on the window seat 11E. The mobile check in boarding pass is on your phone."

"Thanks Chloe."

Chloe sat at her desk and suddenly saw Wellington, along with two other guys from security, approaching her. "I have to hang up now.", she said and flipped her mobile phone closed.

" I'll call you when I'm reaching L.A.", Jack had wanted to answer but she had already ended the call. On the run he opened the mail with the boarding pass as he approached gate 19.


	5. Revelation

Revelation Friday, 11:13 am LT, New York

As Chloe saw Wellington and two security guys approach her office, her cell phone had almost dropped out of her hand. She had thought for a second- whether she should try and hide it, but actually it wouldn't make a difference any more.

They knew it.

She already knew that Wellington had been spying on her and Jack.

Without knocking they pushed open the door and positioned themselves in front of her desk.

"Don't care to knock on my door?", she accused Wellington.

He ignored her sarcastic accusation. "Mrs. O Brian. Please come with us."

"Why?" She was trying to play the innocent, to get some time. As if nothing were wrong she placed her hands on the keyboard to resume to work.

"Get your hands off your computer.", Wellington commanded.

She didn't. Feverishly Chloe pushed the buttons to get the last piece of evidence away – that she had just checked Jack in for a flight to Los Angeles.

"Mrs. O Brian. Get off that computer now or I will force you to.", he said again.

As she didn't react again, he gestured his two security guys to grab her.

They went around the table and roughly pulled Chloe away from her computer. She tried to reach out for the keyboard a last time – one last key hit – but they had grabbed her arms and forced her away.

Wellington looked at her, triumphing. "Bring her into holding 2." Then he took Chloe's cell phone, which still lay at her desk, with him.

Passing by Lynn he gave her Chloe's cell phone. "I want to know who she called. I want you to trace that number."

Lynn watched, perplexed, how her former boss was taken away.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack settled into his seat. He found himself again, in the middle of the economy class. The stewardesses passed by one by one, on the lookout if everyone had the cell phones off and the seat belt on.

He had already taken the sim card and the battery out of his phone. He was alone. All he had left was one knife. Chloe was out of reach for the next five hours of flight.

Jack closed his seat belt and felt for the knife in his trouser pocket once more. He was trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Like a few of the others had, he grabbed a magazine from the stack and started to read.

Walsh couldn't run away.

He peeked at the guy one row in front of him, to his right, at the window.

Walsh was probably 6 feet 2 tall, had black hair, huge eyebrows, dark eyes and wore dark sunglasses. He carried a suitcase with him, which almost instantly attracted Jack's attention.

Walsh hadn't put that suitcase in the overhead compartment, like all the others had done. He kept it in front of him, below the front seat.

_He won't run away for the next five hours_, Jack told himself. _Sit back and wait._

He did.

As the pilot finally applied take-off thrust, the engines started to howl and the accelerating force pushed them all into the seats he couldn't fight the tension build up. He was on board a plane, together with an obvious terrorist. Were there more of them?

Jack looked around but he couldn't find anybody else who had eye-contact with Walsh.

With an uneasy feeling in his stomach he leant back and watched the aircraft's climb.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Chloe waited for Wellington to come back into the interrogation room.

He had put her in here and then he had left without saying a single word.

She guessed he was maybe watching from the adjacent room, what she would do.

Chloe decided to do nothing. She simply sat there, her arms crossed and she was staring at the mirror on the opposite wall.

Wellington came back seven minutes later.

Upon his arrival, he threw a sheet of paper onto the desk in front of Chloe.

She had a brief look at it. It was the passenger list from flight NE933 from Chicago to New York.

Then Wellington sat down at the opposite side of the table. "Who is it?", he asked her.

"Who is who?"

"The one who is coming to New York, for their meeting.", Wellington said.

Chloe said nothing. She glanced at the list, which was over one hundred and twenty names long.

Wellington pulled out another sheet of paper, a shorter list. "Meyer told us about that meeting. It's going to take place in less than two hours, Mrs. O Brian. We need to know the place. And we need to know who out of this list is going to come. These are all persons who have gone to New York on that flight."

She had a look at it. Walsh was not on that list. Of course not – he had taken another flight to L.A.

"What's going to happen to Jack and me?", she finally asked Wellington.

He leant back into the chair. "That depends on what you are going to tell me, Mrs. O Brian. We can forget about all this or put you in jail for treason. You gave away confidential information to a crime suspect."

"And what's going to happen to Jack?"

"Mr. Bauer will get what he deserves.", Wellington answered. His features turned earnest. He had been the head of the investigation of the deaths of Suvarov's foreign minister, Tokarev and the others who Jack Bauer had murdered the other day. "He's a homicidal maniac. We have laws to treat such people."

Chloe nodded. "I suppose the same laws allow you to use a 'homicidal maniac', as you call him, for your own purposes?"

Wellington startled. How in all the world had she come to that conclusion?

Chloe looked at her wristwatch. Jacks plane had left five minutes ago. She could play all her cards now – Wellington couldn't get to Jack any more.

"Mr. Wellington, did you really think I would not notice your dilettantish tries to get into my phone calls?", she asked him.

He shot forward, leaning over the table. "If they really were that dilettantish – why did I succeed, then, in the end, Mrs. O Brian?", he hissed at her.

Chloe also leant forward. It cost all her braveness, but she wouldn't let this man intimidate her. "Did you ever think I maybe let you?"

"Why would you do that, Mrs O Brian? I don't believe you ever had a reason to."

"You're right, I had no reason to let you use one of my dearest friends for your dirty work."

Wellington feared Chloe O Brian might knew more than he ever wanted her to. He sat back onto his chair and cleared his throat. "Mrs. O Brian, it seems you know details about the coming meeting. We need to know them. Withholding that information is treason."

"Bargain for it.", she said, showing him her most annoyed face.

"What about authorizing some… more invasive interrogation methods to be performed on you?", he countered. "You'll give us the information, sooner or later. And we are going to find Jack Bauer."

She sneered at him. "And then? Will you first use him to get all the information you need and thereafter you throw him in jail?"

This time Wellington sneered. "Yes, Mrs. O Brian, yes.", he laughed. He pulled another bunch of files out of the bag that he had brought along. Slowly he put the files down on the table and start to open them, one by one.

"Jack Bauer murdered twelve people over the last three weeks. We've got evidence. We've got phone calls between you and him, before any other murder. That's what I call bargaining, Mrs. O Brian. Now give me the place where this meeting will take place and the name of one who came from Chicago."

She thought for a moment. This was about to get very ugly. Finally, she answered him, "yes, I will. But only in exchange for immunity."

Wellington started to laugh. "Never, Mrs. O Brian. That's not how this is going to work."

She stayed calm. "Go to my station, have a look at a folder named AT2AW."

Boiling of rage Wellington stood up and left the room.


	6. Leverage

Leverage Friday, 11:24 am LT, New York

"Madam President, we have a problem.", Wellington said, having a lump in his throat. He sat alone in his office and desperately pulled his tie open to get more fresh air to breathe.

The folder from Chloe's desktop was erased, but a copy was now on his own, private flash drive.

"Go ahead, Mr. Wellington.", Allyson Taylor said.

"We have Mrs. O Brian in holding right now, but it seems like she knew what we were doing with her and former Agent Bauer."

"How is that possible?", the president hissed. "Does she have any evidence?"

Wellington made a short break. He didn't know where to start. Chloe O Brian had more to pull. "Mrs. O Brian has recorded phone calls."

"What type of phone calls?"

"Madam President, please listen yourself.", he answered and held the player to the microphone.

Allyson Taylor sat in her office, alone, suddenly listening to her own voice.

_Mr. Wellington, are you saying you want me to authorize an assassination?  
Not directly, Madam President. But if we supply him with the right evidence… I think we both know what he is able to do.  
Mr. Wellington, that is nearly the same as murder.  
he made a short pause…. There's only the difference that nobody will trace this assassination to you, me, or to CTU or any governmental channel. We're going to stay clean. _

Allyson Taylor heard herself hesitating on the other phone call. "That's enough.", she briskly said. "I know the rest of this phone call." This was the call where she had authorized him to provide Chloe O Brian with information which she would most likely give on to Bauer.

"How many other calls did she record?", Taylor silently asked. "This one, too?"

"Maybe. We haven't found her tracing mechanisms yet."

"My god….", escaped her lips. "What does she want from us?"

"Immunity, for her and Bauer."

They both sat in silence.

President Taylor thought about this very intensely. "If I give immunity to a man like Jack Bauer, I will lose my face towards the Russians.", she told him. "What can Mrs. O Brian possibly do with that information?"

"She could do anything with it. It's not like we've got this piece of information because we searched for it, Madam President. She had it prepared to show us, as a leverage. I think Mrs. O Brian was awaiting this moment."

Allyson Taylor sighed. "I want to talk to her. Privately.", she finally said. "Can you arrange that for me, Mr. Wellington?"

"Of course, Madam President."

He hung up and took the player with the flash drive with him. Nobody else was allowed ever to put a hand at this piece of critical information.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack couldn't get rid of this bad feeling. He peeked at Walsh, for all the time. That man had a suitcase with him, god knew what was in it.

The worst scenarios were coming to his mind. Could this be a bomb? Did Walsh have any other confederates on this plane, maybe to capture it? Or were they even trying to attack some place in L.A. with this aircraft as a weapon?

He didn't even want to think this all through.

Silently he leant back into this seat and looked out of the windows. Probably one hour out of five hours flight time had already passed. He was getting closer to L.A., his home.

He couldn't help thinking about Kim and little Teri. It was three months since he had seen them for the last time.

As he thought back he wished his farewell with Kim would have been different. He was most likely not to see them ever again.

Jack sighed and got his view back at Walsh. The thought that Kim was also in L.A. made him even more determined to take that man down.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Wellington placed his mobile phone at the middle of the desk, the loudspeaker was on.

He had sent all others away and had stopped the recordings of the interrogation.

"This is president Taylor.", the voice on the phone said.

A cold shiver ran over Chloe's back. She had talked to presidents often before, but this time it was more important than at any other occasion that she said the right words.

"Madam President, this is Chloe O Brian. Mr. Wellington is also in the room."

"Mr. Wellington, would you please leave us alone for a few minutes?"

Obediently he left the room. But he had no good feeling that the president had ordered him to go away. Things were slipping out of his hands.

Chloe took the phone and switched the loudspeaker off. "Madam President, we're alone to talk now."

"Good, Mrs. O Brian. Mr. Wellington told me that you claim immunity for you and Mr. Bauer."

"Along with a pardon for all past crimes.", Chloe added.

"I can't authorize that.", President Taylor replied. "This would include the murder of a Russian minister on American soil. I'm sorry, Mrs. O Brian."

But Chloe stuck to her leverage. "Madam President. I think you forget that if you prosecute Jack Bauer, someone will also prosecute you. This is truth against truth – or pardon against pardon."

"Mrs. O Brian. You are withholding critical information. This is treason."

"Madam President", Chloe cut her off, "I am not withholding any critical information. Mr. Wellington will get all the information he needs. We are only talking about the price."

Allyson Taylor hated to be talked to like that. "Mrs. O Brian, I want you to give Mr. Wellington all the information he needs, right now. I will call you back in an hour to discuss the price." Without any other word she hung up.

Chloe sat in silence. She hardly had any other chance than to talk to Wellington.

Finally, she stood up and knocked at it.

Wellington opened up from the outside.

She gave him back the phone. "Come in, we have to talk."

They went back to the table in the interrogation room and sat down.

Wellington stared at Chloe.

She took the abbreviated list with the names who had ended their travel in New York and threw it away. On the other, complete list of flight NE933 she pointed at Walsh. "This is the guy you are looking for. He's not coming to New York. He boarded a flight to L.A."

"We've got information from Meyer that the meeting is going to take place here", Wellington replied.

"When you go there you'll find out that your information is worth nothing. They revealed his true identity a while ago. Jack found him executed, today, not far from here."

"Where did he find him?"

"In a building on Wellington, corner 74th street. Meyer asked him to drop him off there. I told Jack afterwards that this was not the right place where we wanted Meyer. He went back in and found him dead."

Wellington took out his phone and called a tactical team to have a look at that address.

"Where's Bauer now?", he asked, as he had finished the other call.

Chloe hesitated. They are going to find him, she knew. What if she didn't get the deal with President Taylor?

"Mrs. O Brian. Tell me where Jack Bauer is right now.", Wellington repeated.

"He is….", Chloe hesitated, "… on the same plane with Walsh. They are going to land in L.A. in four hours." She felt horrible in the second she had said it.

Wellington was satisfied. He stood up and left the room.

_What have I done,_ Chloe kept asking herself. She had sold Jack out.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Allyson Taylor sat in the oval office – alone.

She had even sent her Chief of Staff away, because she wanted to have some time to think.

In front of her, on the table, lay – once again- the file of Bauer. His destiny was intrinsically tied to hers, since that other day. She had read that file again and again, after what happened three months ago.

But she had never read it with the thought of giving him a pardon for all that he had done.

There was one name that had appeared in his file, again and again.

She jerked as she heard the knocking on the door.

"Come in, please.", she finally called.

The door opened and James Heller stepped into the room. "Madam President, you wanted to see me?"

This was the name that was all over Bauer's file. Heller. Their destinies were also intrinsically tied to each other as well after what had happened between them in the past.

"Yes, Mr. Secretary, please sit down." She wove her had at the couches in the back of her office. As she went over to him she didn't even care to take Bauer's file with her. That man knew the details by heart, so did she.

James Heller sat down, Allyson Taylor opposite him.

"Mr. Heller", she started.

He listened up since she had addressed him so personally.

"I've got a very…. Sophisticated problem. It seems to me, that you also had this problem in the past.", she hesitatingly continued.

"What kind of problem are we talking about?", James Heller asked.

She looked up, into his eyes. "I need to pardon a man and…", this was so hard to speak about, "I can't afford to that at the same time."

Heller's curiosity got piqued. "Who are we talking about?"

"Jack Bauer."


	7. Arrival

Arrival Friday, 13:00 pm LT, LAX Airport

Their flight had arrived, ten minutes in advance. While taxiing jack had reassembled his phone, but had waited to switch it on again.

Everyone was now rushing out of the airplane, but the whole crowd seemed to be stuck in the middle aisle between the rows of 6 seats each.

Jack tried his best to keep Walsh in sight. The man was four persons ahead of him, just enough to still be in his sight.

As they finally reached the gangway, Jack kept steadily five yards behind Walsh. He hoped Walsh would go and wait at the baggage claim like all the others, but Walsh had no baggage with him, except for his suitcase. He was heading directly for the exit.

Hurriedly Jack switched on the phone to call Chloe.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"This is the deal for now, take it.", Wellington ended his long speech.

Chloe thought it over again. They had sent special troops of CTU Los Angeles to the Airport, along with a military convoy which was at standby. Her task was now to call Jack, tell him somehow, that she had sold him out to the government, and order him to cooperate with them.

Wellington had promised her, that they would not take Jack into custody. The president hadn't yet finished Jack's and her pardon, but she was working on it.

Chloe hesitated with calling him. She was still searching for the right ways to tell him what she had done- but didn't find a right way.

Finally, the decision was taken out of her hands, as her phone suddenly started to ring.

"That's him.", she murmured.

Wellington nodded to her. "Take it." He put in his own earpiece to listen to their conversation.

"Arrived?", she briskly asked him.

"Yeah, I'm here now. Listen, I'm following that guy, you'll have to help me with the security cameras. He's got a suitcase, I think something important is in there. He didn't leave it out of sight, not for one second."

"Listen….", she started.

"What is it?"

This was so damn hard to say.

Although they had agreed not use names over the phone Jack somehow felt that something was wrong. "Chloe, what's wrong?", he asked. "Tell me."

"I…. we… my boss, Wellington found out about… us.", Chloe stammered. "I had to give them your location."

"What!?" Jack stopped walking. He felt his heart sink.

"Mr. Bauer?", Wellington finally interrupted.

To hear that voice frightened him. A cold shower ran down his back.

Jack took a deep breath and told himself to focus. Focus on Walsh, who he had nearly lost during the past ten seconds.

"Do you have a team here, on site?", Jack asked.

"Yes, we do. Mr. Bauer, we can't fully bring you up to speed on this right now, but Mrs. O Brian bargained well for you. You will be working with CTU Los Angeles to find that man."

"Yes, Sir, I understand. Can you patch me through to their commander?"

"Of course." Wellington was happy that Jack didn't argue with them. He called their team leader. "Agent McCoy, Jack Bauer is on the line for you.", he hurriedly said. Then he sat back and waited, what would happen.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack still followed Walsh through the LAX terminal number 1. As a surprise Walsh had passed by 3 exits, not taking any of those. He seemed to be going to a distinct place, somewhere here in the terminal.

Thirty feet in front of Walsh two men were walking. They belonged to McCoy's team. Jack directed where to go next.

McCoy was somewhere on Jack's left side. He hadn't spotted him yet, but he definitely had to be there.

They kept on walking, along the main terminal hall.

Jack feared something bad could happen now any second.

Walsh stopped at a café to his right. He put the suitcase on a table and sat down, like if he were waiting.

"All men, stop moving. He stopped at the café.", McCoy commanded over the radio.

Jack went into a shop to his right, from where he was able to watch Walsh without being seen.

For the first time he had a few seconds to look out for McCoy.

Actually, the Agent was not far away. He also stood between the rows of aisles, in the same shop.

Jack went over to him. They shook hands. "Agent McCoy."

"Mr. Bauer. Nice to meet you, finally."

They stood shoulder to shoulder, both watching Walsh. "Did that guy do anything suspicious on the plane?"

"No. But it seems he's quite fond of his suitcase. Wouldn't let it out of his hand for one single second. It has to be important."

They saw a man from airport security – he was strolling through the café and now approaching Walsh.

"Who is that guy? One of yours?", Jack asked.

McCoy shook his head. "No, absolutely not. What is he doing?"

Jack had a closer look. "Oh my god…", he breathed, "It looks like he's doing a baggage spot check. He's going to get himself killed." He was restless in his hideout, but he couldn't do anything right now.

They both watched how the security guy approached Walsh, they were talking for two minutes, then he commanded Walsh to open up his suitcase.

"All units stand by. Our target is going to start a fight, with high probability.", McCoy said over the radio.

Walsh finally opened up his suitcase.

Jack couldn't see exactly what was in there, but it looked like there were twenty or more ICs, all in the size of common hard disks.

Walsh wasn't showing any sign of violence. He took one of the ICs out and handed it to the security guy. Then he closed the suitcase again.

"Did you see that?", Jack asked McCoy. "He gave that man something. That's not a security guy from the airport. He's one of Walsh's men."

"Scott and Wilbur, you follow the security. Don't let him out of sight, and don't let him leave the building with that thing.", McCoy commanded again. He looked at Jack. "And we're going to keep an eye on Walsh."

Jack nodded his head yes.

They both slid out of their cover again, as Walsh was getting ready to move on.

This time the man headed directly towards the main entrance. A car – a dark red SUV was waiting for him.

McCoy ran to one of the taxis, showing the driver his badge. "Federal agent. I need your vehicle." Turning to Jack, he told him "Get in. Hurry."

Jack pulled out his mobile phone to call Chloe.

"Jack?"

"Chloe, I need you to track a vehicle for me. The license numb…"

"Jack, I'm still in holding here.", she interrupted him.

"Not any longer. The number is C9Y-220A."

Chloe looked up, at Wellington.

For a moment he thought about this all, whether he should let her go back to work or not. But actually, she hadn't done anything to compromise their mission. She and Jack had brought them a lead which was more promising that anything they had ever had before.

"Go back to your desk", he finally said, "I want updates about this situation every five minutes."

"Thanks", Chloe smirked and hurriedly left the interrogation room.


	8. Chaos

Chaos Friday, 14:10 pm LT, Los Angeles

"Jack, he's about to turn left on the intersection, heading for highway 5.", Chloe said.

"How far in front?"

"About five blocks. He's keeping the speed up, try not to go any slower."

"That's easier to be said than done. We're in the middle of a traffic jam here, Chloe."

"Relax, Jack. He's in the same jam. He's not going much faster than you." She let out an annoyed breath.

"Thanks. We'll stay on the line."

He leant back into the seat, though he couldn't really relax at the moment. It was Friday afternoon and they were stuck here, in the middle of the city, in a gigantic traffic jam, along with a potential terrorist.

Even worse was, that he had no idea how his life would continue.

Jack glanced sidelong, at McCoy. He knew that man, from CTU. This was an awful load of years ago.

"She'll keep us posted.", Jack murmured. "Take the exit to highway 5 when we get there."

"Wilco.", MyCoy answered.

They sat in silence, for a few moments.

McCoy wasn't sure, what he should say to Bauer. That man was a legend to him. Years ago, when he had come to CTU as a young agent, Bauer had been their boss. Over the years he had seen CTU directors come and go, but after all he had to admit that Bauer had belonged to the better ones. He took the COM unit out of his ear. "Agent Bauer?"

Jack turned to him. "Call me Jack. I'm not an agent anymore."

"Okay… thanks. I'm Chris."

"I still know who you are.", Jack answered.

McCoy felt flattered. Bauer remembered him. "Are you going to stay in L.A. for a longer period?"

Jack took a deep breath. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it yet."

"Alright. Tell me if you need anything."

"Thanks.", Jack murmured. "Actually, I'd really like to know one thing: who is coordinating this operation now?"

"We got orders directly from the White House.", McCoy began, "Why do you ask, Jack? Haven't you been in the loop?"

"I was in the airplane for the last five hours… I think I really missed some parts of this operation.", Jack lied. He had definitely missed more than McCoy would ever be able to tell him. If the White House had their hands in this game it was getting really bad. They only came into play when things were going horribly wrong.

McCoy's mobile phone beeped. He had a quick look at it.

"My men took out the security guy from the airport."

"Any useful information?", Jack asked.

McCoy shook his head no. "Not yet. He's been killed during the intervention. But they secured the IC board that he had received from Walsh. Maybe we'll find out more by then. They got an address out of his car's GPS system. We'll be informed when they reach the place."

"Okay." Jack sighed. "Down there is the interchange to highway 5." He put his earpiece in again. "Chloe, are you still there?"

There was no answer.

"Chloe?", Jack asked again.

He looked at his cell phone. Somehow, their connection had been separated during the past two minutes.

He dialed her number again, just to hear _The number you've called is currently unavailable. Please try…_

"Something's not right here. Give me your phone, please."

As McCoy passed his own mobile phone to Jack, he hurriedly started to push in Chloe's number.

Again – _The number you've called …._

"Something's not right." Jack said and gave him the phone back. "Try to call your people, try to get us in touch with New York. And take the exit."

"Aye aye, Sir", McCoy answered. He finally got through to his people at CTU Los Angeles. "Patch me through to New York, Mrs. Chloe O Brian.", he said.

Jack heard him repeat the order.

"What does that mean?", McCoy finally asked.

Jack turned to him- just to see how Chris McCoy's features froze. He turned pale.

"What is it?", Jack asked him.

McCoy put the phone away for a second. "It seems like there was a major power blackout in New York. We've lost all mobile connections but they'll be back online soon."

Jack had no good feeling about this. He kept to eavesdrop on McCoy.

"How sure is that? Can they possibly use it for something else?"

McCoy listened to what they told him over the phone. "Alright. I'll inform him." He hung up.

"What's up? What are you going to inform me about?", Jack asked.

"The IC board we found…", McCoy began, and then he paused, because there was a lump in his throat. "Belonged to a detonation trigger of a Russian nuke."

Jack took a deep breath. "Was it intended for sale or for usage?"

McCoy looked into Jack's eyes. "To be used."

"We have to get Walsh. NOW!", Jack roared.

McCoy switched on the blue lights behind the windshield and stepped on the gas pedal.

Jack leant over to look out of the side window.

"Do you see him now?", McCoy asked.

"No. He must be four blocks ahead, according to what Chloe told us."

"We'll never find him without satellite coverage.", McCoy swore.

"We know he wanted to go north on highway 5. All we can do is to try that.", Jack answered and feverishly kept looking.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The evacuation of the White House was already in progress.

Two minutes after the power blackout had set in, already the first speculations about a terrorist attack had been raised.

A bunch of Secret Service agents was rushing President Taylor and Secretary Heller towards the elevators.

They said nothing, during the whole ride down. Only the voices of the Secret Service Agents and their radios filled the air. Allyson Taylor glanced at Heller. They had been talking in a very private way for the last couple of hours. She took her time to solve this Bauer-issue, now, once and clean. After what she had read out of Bauer's file, Heller hated that man.

If she would have simply pardoned Bauer, she would have made Heller her worst enemy.

But in the meantime they were working on a solution not to let that happen.

"Did we manage to get in contact with CTU already?", President Taylor asked her Chief of Staff.

"No, unfortunately not, Ma'am."

"Keep me posted, the second you hear anything from Mr. Wellington.", she ordered.

"Of course, Madam President."

As they reached the bottom level, Allyson Taylor was glad to get out of this claustrophobic elevator. She headed right for her office. "Mr. Secretary, will you please join me in the office?"

"Of course", he answered.

"And you, Nathan, I want you to get me an evaluation about this all. Tell me if this is going to be like the power glitch in New York, a few years ago, or if it could turn into anything dramatic like that."

"Of course.", they answered.

She pushed the door to her office open and let Heller in. "Please, have a seat."

He went, in, hesitating. "Are we still discussing our 'item' or…?"

"No.", she cut him off. "I'd rather postpone that. We have more important things now. If this power breakdown continues, I am considering to enforce martial law. I want to discuss this with you, as secretary of Defense, before we go to the meeting with the Joint Chiefs."

Heller took a deep breath. He was well aware that this decision was not easy for her. If she made a wrong call her shaky ground as a politician – and above all this shakily presidency – could be at risk. She wasn't allowed to make any more mistakes.

"If you want that, Madam President, I'll go along with your decision, of course."

She nodded and went around her table. "But what would you decide, if I asked for your opinion?"

Heller stood and thought for a few moments. This was indeed a very delicate decision. "I would… wait to see if they are able to solve that problem… but I would also take a few precautions- get the troops ready."

She nodded her head, approvingly. "Yes, Mr. Secretary, I also thought like that. I think that will be the best way."

As she left the room, she stopped as she passed him, saying with a hushed voice, "We will take care about our problem later, but I think there are worse problems now."

Heller nodded. "Of course, Madam President. I'll think of a solution in the meantime."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack and agent McCoy were making their way through hundreds of cars. Although they made their way much faster now, with blue lights on, Jack doubted if that would bring them any good. If Walsh saw them, he'd probably leave the street even faster.

They finally reached the junction with highway 5. McCoy stopped their car to have a look down at the other highway. Feverishly he and jack searched for the dark red SUV. No success. The sun burned down, turning the asphalt into a burning hot heater beneath their feet. The air was shimmering in the heat.

They both leant over the guide rails and scanned the other highway.

"Do you see anything?", McCoy dared to ask after a few moments.

"No.", Jack murmured.

"We lost him.", McCoy silently commented.

Even Jack had to admit after another couple of minutes, that they were fighting a lost battle – searching for a needle in the haystack.

He stepped back from the guide rails, roaring a loud "Damn it!" Tearing his hair he went the few steps back to their car.

McCoy pulled out his mobile phone to call his office. Right as he wanted to punch in the numbers, he read 'no reception' on the display.

He turned around, looking down into the streets once again from up here. In the same moment all the huge billboards, annunciator panels, street lights, traffic lights and everything else was going out.

"Jack…", McCoy stammered, "Come over here, you've got to see this."

They both stood at the verge of the highway, spellbound, watching what was happening all around them. The blackout was widening.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Allyson Taylor sat in the situation room, as their Chief of Staff presented the latest figures. The main transformer and distribution stations had gone offline. The blackout was so large of scale, that most of the stations hadn't even had a chance to report their status.

But the few of them who had reported their status drew an even worse picture.

They all reported explosions. Most hadn't yet had time to identify the cause of these explosions. Some who had the luxury of a satellite phone in their control rooms had said they were supposing a few transformers had overheated.

But the picture made sense now.

These faults were not technical failures. Somebody had acted very strategically. The explosions were so many- they had been bombs. Everything else was ruled out by probability.

As the Chief of Staff finally ended the dark outlook at their situation everyone in the room sat in silence.

They were all starring at the screens in front of them. 98% of the power grid was down. Emergency shutdowns were conducted in all nuclear power plants.

President Taylor was the first to speak again. "When do we expect to get the grid back on?", she asked. She tried to sound strong, but she hadn't been able to keep her voice from shaking.

"Not before next Wednesday. That's the optimistic forecast.", the Chief of Staff answered.

_My god,_ escaped her lips.

In that moment, one of her advisors ripped the door open and approach President Taylor from behind. He handed her a piece of paper.

She read it, and then it slowly slipped out of her hand. Two bombs had gone off. One close to D.C., the other in the middle of the country.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Jack and McCoy were driving north on highway 5.

Since they had lost any contact to CTU that was the only thing they could really do. In the last sentences of their talk Chloe had told them that Walsh was about to go north on the highway number 5. Jack hoped she was ok right now.

They desperately tried to get in contact with CTU Los Angeles over the only sat phone.

The traffic jam was getting less as they reached the outskirts.

"Do you think we will ever catch up with him?", McCoy asked. He had switched off the blue lights not to attract too much attention.

"I don't know."

Jack tried to call CTU again. This time – for the first time at all – he heard a ringing on the other end of the line. "It works now.", he said, and passed the phone on to McCoy.

"This is McCoy, patch me through to the director."

This was the moment, when the Director of CTU filled McCoy in on the details. Two bombs had gone off, most likely small nuclear devices.

McCoy's was still pale, but he looked even aghast, as he told Jack.

The earth beneath them suddenly started to quake.

Not for long.

They were driving through North Valley right now.

Cars in front of them stopped, finally blocking the highway.

McCoy drove to the curbside and stopped their car as well.

He and Jack slowly got, not saying a word.

They stood in front of the car and watched a plume of dust, smoke and clouds rise on the northern horizon. It started to form a typical mushroom cloud.


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue Friday, 19:00 pm LT, Washington, DC

The decision on Martial Law was done. In the end, it hadn't been very hard to make. A third bomb been set off in California, somewhere between Bakersfield and Fresno.

Allyson Taylor held a folder with the newest prediction of number of casualties in her hand as she came back into her office.

James Heller was already waiting for her.

She took a deep breath and held it, as she looked at him. Heller looked haunted, came into her mind.

"The number of casualties resulting of the fallout will be devastating.", she said. "We only have vague predictions about the size of that bomb. But even in the best way two complete cities in California are as good as lost already. More could follow if the clouds drift into the wrong direction."

Heller nodded. He had read the prognosis, too.

"I probably have a solution for our problem, Madam President.", he began, as he stood up and approached her.

Taylor listened up. She couldn't read anything in Heller's features any more. "Go ahead."

"My daughter, Audrey…. She is in Bakersfield right now.", he began.

* * *

_hi everyone, _

_sorry for the teaser at the end. _

_I decided to finish "another day" here._

_But it will continue in my next story "fallout"- of course Heller is going to send Jack to save Audrey... _

_please Read & Review. Tell me what you think about it. Thanks a lot._


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